ARTICLE VIII.

A BRIEF REPORT OF TRAVELS IN PALESTINE AND THE ADJACENT REGIONS IN 1838; UNDERTAKEN FOR THE ILLUSTRATION OF BIBLICAL GEOGRAPHY, BY THE REV. PROF. E. ROBINSON AND REV. E. SMITH. PREPARED AND READ BEFORE THE GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF BERLIN, DEC. 8, 1838, AND JAN. 6, 1839.*

By Edward Robinson, D. D. Prof. of Bib. Lit. New York Theol. Sem. New York.

THE journey of which the following is a brief account, had entered into all my plans of life for the last fifteen years. So long ago as 1832, it was the subject of conversation between myself and the Rev. Eli Smith, then on a visit to the United States; and the same general plan of the journey was then marked out, which we have been permitted during the present year to execute. I count it fortunate for myself and for the interests of Biblical science, that I was thus able to secure the company of one, who, by his familiar and accurate knowledge of the Arabic language, by his experience as a traveller in Persia and Armenia, and by his acquaintance with the people of Syria, was so well qualified to remove the difficulties and overcome the obstacles usually attendant upon oriental travel.

[In a letter to the Editor, Prof. Robinson remarks on this Article, that, “having been prepared for a purely scientific Society, there is perhaps less of scriptural reference in it than would otherwise be desirable." It is, however, so rich in its illustrations of scripture scenery, names and history, that no reader of the Bible will fail to peruse it with interest, and the intelligent Christian will readily perceive most of the points of scripture history which it elucidates and supports.

Prof. Robinson was better prepared by previous study, than any other modern traveller in Palestine, for an intelligent investigation of the antiquities of the. Holy Land. His authority, therefore, may be deemed conclusive on many points which had been involved in doubt; and we are happy to be the organ of communicating to the American public this rich and interesting outline of his discoveries and observations. It affords us pleasure to add that the author is diligently employed, in Berlin, during the present winter, in preparing a full journal of his travels for the press; and is expected to resume his labors in the New York Theol. Seminary in course of the ensuing summer.-ED.]

I embarked at Trieste Dec. 1, 1837; and after spending a fortnight at Athens proceeded to Alexandria and Cairo. The months of January and February 1838, were mostly spent in a voyage up the Nile as far as Thebes. Returning to Cairo in the last days of February, I found Mr. Smith just arrived; and we now entered on the preparations necessary for our long journey through the desert. We visited mean while the pyramids of Gizeh, the earliest and most vast of all human monuments; and were ready to set off on our journey on the 12th of March.

I. FROM CAIRO TO MOUNT SINAI AND AKABAH.

It had been our wish to take a somewhat circuitous route from Cairo to Suez, descending along the eastern branch of the Nile as far as the province Sharkiyeh, and thence along the valley of the ancient canal to the head of the Gulf of Suez. But our time was limited, and we were compelled to take the usual and shortest route, that of Ankebiyeh, the same which Burckhardt travelled in 1816. Our party consisted of three Americans, two Egyptian servants, and five Arabs of the Towara, who have the exclusive right of conducting travellers from Egypt to Mount Sinai. They were the owners of the nine camels we had hired, and were all under the direction of Besharah our guide, one of the men who accompanied Laborde. Just without the city, near the splendid but now neglected tombs of the Kalifs, we halted for a time, to adjust the loads of the camels for the journey, which could not so well be done in the narrow streets of the city. Then we launched forth into the desert; and traveling onward until darkness overtook us, we pitched our tent for the night in a shallow Wady. This term, in the desert, means a shallow bed, through which the waters of the rainy season are carried off; while in uneven or mountainous regions, it is also applied to the deepest and broadest yallies. It was a new and exciting feeling, to find ourselves thus alone in the midst of the desert, in the true style of oriental travel; carrying with us our house, our provisions, and our supply of water for many days; and surrounded by camels and the wild sons of the desert, in a region where the eye could find nought to rest upon but dreary desolation. It was a scene which had often taken possession of my youthful imagination; but which I had not dared to hope would ever be realized.

The desert of Suez is not sandy; its surface for the most part is a hard gravel, often strewed with pebbles. Numerous Wadys or water-courses intersect its surface, flowing mostly towards the N. W. to the borders of the Nile or the valley of the ancient canal. In all these Wadys there are usually to be found scattered tufts of herbs, or shrubs, on which the camels browse as they pass along; and which serve also as their pasturage, when turned loose at night. During the present season there had been no rain; and the whole appearance of the desert and its Wadys, was dry and parched.

Nor did the desert change its character for the better, as we approached Suez. Hills and mountains, and the long narrow strip of salt water were indeed around and before us; but not a tree, nor scarcely a shrub, and not one green thing was to be seen in the whole circle of vision. Nor is drop of fresh water to be obtained. All the water with which Suez is supplied for personal use, is brought from three hours' distance across the gulf; and is so brackish as to be scarcely drinkable.In the desert we had frequent instances of the mirage, presenting the appearance of lakes of water and islands; and as we began to descend towards Suez, it was difficult to distinguish between these appearances and the distant real waters of the Red Sea.

We reached Suez on the fourth day from Cairo; pitched our tent on the shore without the walls; and remained there twenty four hours. Our attention was naturally directed to the circumstances connected with the passage of the Israelites through the Sea. We saw the gulf here twice at low water. Extensive shoals, apparently of coral, stretch out into it for two miles or more below Suez. These are left bare at the ebb, except a narrow winding channel, by which small vessels come quite up to the town. A narrow bay runs up for some distance North of Suez. Anciently the waters of the gulf must have extended much further above the city than at present; for obviously a large tract has been filled up by sand drifted in from the Northeastern desert. This tract is still overflowed, when the waters are driven up the gulf by a strong S. E. wind. Just above Suez, the narrow bay is daily forded at low water.

Our minds were satisfied, in general, that the Israelites must have journeyed from the land of Goshen to the Red Sea, along the valley of the ancient canal, this being the only route on which they could obtain water; and, also, that they must have passed through the Sea at or near Suez, directly from the great

desert plain which extends for ten or twelve miles West and North behind the city. Of course it is impossible to fix the exact point of their passage; but it may not improbably have taken place lower down and near the edge of the present shoals; where even now, at very low tides, the Arabs sometimes wade across. It must be remembered, that the miracle was wrought through the instrumentality of a strong East (or N. E.) wind, which here would act directly to drive out the waters; but would not so act in any other part of the gulf. There are also great difficulties connected with the rapid passage of so great a multitude through the sea at any point where it is wider.

Leaving Suez late the next day, we took our course around the head of the gulf, the better to observe the features of the country. We pitched our tent at night over against Suez, but somewhat lower down, not far from the place where the Israelites probably came out upon the eastern shore. Here, at our evening devotions, and near the spot where it was composed and first sung, we read and felt in its full force, the magnificent triumphal song of Moses: "The Lord hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he hath thrown into the sea!" A desert plain extends along the eastern shore of the gulf for nearly fifty miles, bounded on the East by a range of hills or mountains twelve or fifteen miles from the coast. At 3 hours from the northern end are the brackish fountains of Moses (Ayûn Mûsa); and then for eighteen hours or about forty-five miles further, no water is found. This is probably the desert of Shur or Etham, in which the Israelites journied for three days without water. Then occurs the bitter fountain Hawara, corresponding to the ancient Marah; and two hours further is the Wady Ghurundel, probably Elim, where are still water and a few palm-trees. From opposite this point a ridge of chalky mountains, Jebel Hummâm, runs along the sea for some distance, and cuts off all passage along the shore. The Israelites must therefore of necessity have passed by the present road inside of these mountains, to the head of Wady Tayibeh, and so down this Wady to the gulf, where they next encamped "by the Red Sea." Thence they would seem to have followed the lower road to Mt. Sinai, through the Wadys Mukatteb and Feirân; but the stations are mentioned so indefinitely, that no hope remains of their ever being identified.

We took the upper road to Sinai, which leads across a portion of the great sandy tract lying between the high northern

ridge Et-Tih, and the more southern clusters of Sinai. Et-Tih is a long level ridge of sandstone, stretching across the whole peninsula. Laborde asserts with emphasis that there is only a single pass through this ridge; but our Arabs, who had also been his guides, described to us repeatedly no less than four such passes, three of which are frequented roads to Gaza and Syria. We turned aside also to the right a short distance, to visit the solitary and mysterious monuments of Sŭrâbit el-Khadim. Travellers have supposed these monuments to be tombstones. They are evidently of Egyptian origin, being covered with hieroglyphics indicating a high antiquity; but they have nothing of the character of an Egyptian cemetery.

We approached the central granite mountains of Sinai, not by the more usual and easy route of Wady Shekh, which winds around and enters from the East; but following a succession of Wadys we crossed Wady Shekh and entered the higher granite formation by a shorter route, directly from the N. N. W. through a steep, rocky, and difficult pass, between rugged, blackened cliffs, 800 to 1000 feet high. Approaching in this direction, we were surprised and delighted, to find ourselves, after two hours, crossing the whole length of a fine plain; from the southern end of which that part of Sinai now called Horeb rises perpendicularly in dark and frowning majesty. This plain is over two miles in length, and nearly two thirds of a mile broad, sprinkled with tufts of herbs and shrubs, like the Wadys of the desert. It is wholly enclosed by dark granite mountains,stern, naked, splintered peaks and ridges, from 1000 to 1500 feet high. On the East of Horeb a deep and very narrow valley runs in like a cleft, as if in continuation of the S. E. corner of the plain. In this stands the convent, at the distance of a mile from the plain; and the deep verdure of its fruit-trees and cypresses is seen as the traveller approaches, an oasis of beauty amid scenes of the sternest desolation. On the West of Horeb, there runs up a similar valley, parallel to the former. It is called El-Leja, and in it stands the deserted convent El-Erbayin, with a garden of olive and other fruit-trees, not visible from the plain.

The name Sinai is at present applied, generally, to the lofty ridge running from N. N. W. to S. S. E. between the two narrow vallies just described. The northern part, or lower summit, is the present Horeb, overlooking the plain. About 2 or three miles South of this, the ridge rises and ends in a higher